Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 3 • Number 6 • 3rd April 2003
Stark Differences Apparent over Outlook for CAP Reform
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e European Commission’s January 2003 reform proposal for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP, see BRIDGES Trade BioRes; 7 February 2003) is expected to favour the extensification of production and secure significant income gains for EU farmers, according to two new impact analyses published by DG Agriculture. This would result from implementing the Commission’s proposed decoupling scheme, which would lead to a severing of the link between production and subsidy. The resulting improvement of production efficiency is expected to benefit both existing and new EU member states.
A recent report published by Consumers International on the global impact of the CAP, however, is far less optimistic. The report contends that the Commission’s proposals are “too limited and too gradual to prevent a large reduction of the well-being of EU citizens in the next decade” resulting from extending the CAP to new members states. Rather than benefiting accession states, the CAP is expected to make food more expensive in these countries, where incomes are already lower than in the current EU. The report furthermore notes that the CAP is damaging the interests of developing countries, especially through the export of heavily subsidised surplus produce and import restrictions.
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